“We’re offering a lot more creature
comforts and luxuries to the customers,”
Van Wagenen said. “There’s a lot of
companies now with different floor plans
and different things out there, but what we
tried todo is not just limit the customer.
“Our lounging boats are transformable in
that you can lift the chairs up, put a table
between them, or use them as loungers or
asa picnic seating group.We try to see what’s
out there andmake it a little bit more usable
and a little bit more versatile and give our
customers some more options than our
competitors in terms of how they use the
boats.”
Manitou’s typical customer these days falls
within the Baby Boomer age demographic
and comes to the market with a history of
fiberglass boat ownership. The increased
performance and enhanced design of the
pontoon variety is attractive to those
customers, as is the extra deck space that can
accommodate more family members –
often-times children and grandchildren.
In fact, Van Wagenen said, many have
chosen to consolidate their collections by
getting rid of other boats, and the associated
insurance, docking and fueling costs, to
become pontoon-only owners.
“Once we got this hull locked in and
everything ready, we did see that people
could keep everything they’ve loved about a
pontoon boat, but now add everything
they’ve loved for a long time about their
runabouts,” he said. “They’re not giving up
anything in a traditional pontoon and
they’re adding quite a bit of performance.”
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Triton Industries Inc.
WHAT:
Manufacturer of leisure, luxury and
performance pontoon boats under
the Manitou brand
WHERE:
Lansing, Michigan
WEBSITE:
www.ManitouPontoonBoats.com
June-July 2014
| BusinessWorld |165
